Great British Railway Journeys Season 14 Episode 15

Tewkesbury to Filton

Michael Portillo is on the last leg of his railway journey from the train-building city of Derby to the aircraft manufacturing base of Filton. From Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, he heads to the fairy-tale castle of Eastnor at the foot of the Malvern Hills. At a factory in Coleford in the Forest of Dean, Michael recalls his childhood screen debut in an advertisement for a fruity cordial and discovers it remains popular today. At Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, Michael heads for the wetlands of the Severn Estuary, where the postwar conservation movement in Britain began with the opening of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Michael’s last stop is Filton, where he investigates the centre of Britain’s postwar aviation industry and the manufacturing base for the fastest passenger plane on earth, Concorde.